Download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/p/paladin/bs5wkrgtnckq
First Minutes of Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYUwJ3dlBCsWilwav2susQNpoEmSTRTeb
Playing Paladin in Normal mode. Not a fan of this game: Broken controls that lock movement and aim to 12/3/6/9 clock directions while requiring more precise aim (see at 1:11; an issue that plagues many indie shmups, I wrote an article to help stop this in XBLIG shmups: http://xona.com/2010/05/03.html), too much momentum, too fast screen scroll with not enough insight to what you are scrolling into, unclear damage, lives are just hit points that can snap away in rapid succession, unclear threats, poorly slow responding menus, slow fire rate for a dual-stick shooter, powerups such as "rage" have little visual or audio feedback (UI) to whether they have been engaged or not, etc. I ended up restarting (32:47), choosing a ship that others on the leaderboards had beat the game with, and replaying every level until I completed it without dying: As the boss on level 20 (23:29..32:16) was killing me too easily and so I was taught to save up my lives; This idea spoiled the fun. I could have put it in Easy mode (it was in Normal mode), however the issues would still persist. I was quite frustrated with it most of the way through. I am critical of shmups, and this one does not pass many of my tests. I think it had potential. It's too bad. Achievements are easy in Easy mode. I played it in Normal mode until stage 35 of 40 and switched it to Easy mode (1:35:24), out of frustration. I feel as those the game was hard due to the poor controls and design, not due to my own skills. That's the key with designing challenging games.
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